a week in photos

Much as I'd love to spend a while waffling on about what I've been doing this week, I just don't have the energy right now!

So, here's a selection of photos so you can see what I've been up to... celebratory cakes, learning new wall-building skills (and finding out that putting cement on with your hands, er, isn't a very good idea), disco balls and fabulously painted ceilings, an evening trip through beautiful countryside to an old haunt (and an old friend), a walled pub garden, a whole-city free music festival, a picnic in the park, and a lavender cake in a little London cafe.

And trains. Lots of trains.

Speaking of which, I've got to be on another one in 7 hours, best go to sleep....

Today I have been mostly swanning around looking like a bit of a pillock.

And being glad that this is (hopefully!) the third and last time.

And eating jam roly poly and custard, because you can't possibly expect me to spend the entire day looking like that without treats.

sneaking up early (and hula hoops)

Would you just have a look at this adorable Viennese butter kiss I had at the Women's Institute yesterday morning! So tiny, and so perfect. That wrapper! Just when you start to think the WI is all jam and sturdy fruit cake, they pop something like this in to surprise you.

(although on the whole I do prefer a piece of sturdy fruit cake myself).

Anyway, that wasn't what I came here to tell you. I came here to talk about getting up before everyone else gets up.

Because that's what I've just done.

As it happens, there's only one other person here to get up before - and I do often get up before him, because I work a long way away, and he often works in the evenings rather than the mornings. But that's everyday getting up before someone.

This is sneaking out of bed trying not to wake them up.

I have no idea why it felt like that this morning, but it did, and I like it. I like that feeling of slipping downstairs, trying not to make the floorboards squeak (utterly impossible in this house, I tell you), looking around at the mess of camping equipment and wondering if you can tidy it before he wakes up, trying to catch the boiling kettle before it starts whistling tooooo excitedly, and then drinking tea and sifting through yesterday's photographs, remembering that I actually sneaked in a little fun project while he was having a nap yesterday afternoon.

(I should point out that obviously I do fun things when Peter is awake too, but there's something quite exciting about a furtive bit of sloping round with the house to yourself, not entirely sure when you're going to be disturbed).

So, shall I show you what I did yesterday?

First of all, I opened ALL the curtains and windows, so I could see and hear the rain.

Then I put Pride and Prejudice on the tv.

Then I pulled out the two bits of plumbing pipe I bought the day before and made a collapsible hula hoop.

Yep, that's right. I LOVE hula hoops. We have one hanging in our shower. But that one's a little bit too small for proper hula hooping.

I've got a friend with a HUGE hoop, it's so lovely to twirl round in, but there's just nowhere to put it round here, and it won't fit in the car for camping trips (if we ever manage to get on any, that is).

So I wanted to make a collapsible one.

I think the guy in the plumbing shop was a little bemused, but he played along gamely, even when his mate came into the shop while he was trying to bend the pipe round his waist.

The two blokes in the hardware shop took my requests all in their stride - they're used to me ambling in saying 'have you got any magnets? I'm trying to attach them to cardboard fish' and the like, so this was perfectly ordinary.

So - one length of waste pipe (cut in half), two easy (well, reasonably easy) quick-connector things, one roll of black electrical tape, and one roll of jaffa tape (*love it*) later, and I'm all set - for the princely sum of £8.

Have you got any idea how difficult it is to photograph a hula hoop?

Or how many dusty mirrors I have in my living room? (a lot, it appears).

(obviously it's entirely necessary to keep one's wellies on while making hula hoops - just in case)

So - by the end of Pride and Prejudice, and the end of the roll of jaffa tape, and the end of Peter's afternoon nap, I had myself a nifty tiger-striped hula hoop.

That just about twirls round in the living room, as long as there's nobody else in there too.

I wonder what little mini adventure I can get up to this afternoon while he's asleep??

Speaking of which, I should probably wake him up with a cuppa in a minute - we're off to our current favourite little cafe for breakfast treats and he won't want to miss that...

You up to anything exciting today?

ooops, there I go again...

Oh dear, yes, that's another cafe.

Betty's in York this time, super-posh, queues out of the door, waitresses in aprons calling you 'madam' (madam indeed!), and £3 for a pot of tea.

Needless to say I don't go there very often!

But they are well known for their delectable cakes (and piano player, no less), and this was for *work*, don't you know, so I had to. No avoiding it at all. Absolutely none.

No cakes on this day for me though, it was SO hot, we'd walked a long way, and it was the middle of the working day (ahem), so lunch it was.

Poached eggs on toast (£5.95! Gosh) - with the toast cut into little triangles with the crusts cut off, no less. Very tasty it was too.

Just not too often...

anyway.... it's been absolutely GLORIOUS round here lately, it really has.

I've been walking around the hills and fields pretty much every evening I can, this is so close to home, and it's so quiet up there, you can see for miles, and watch the sun setting, and I always come back feeling so peaceful and like everything's right with the world.

Can't beat that feeling really.

Exciting weekend plans afoot here, mostly involving lazing around in the sunshine I hope. Hooray! Are you up to anything exciting?

scones in the sunshine

I'm having a lovely few days off, I tell you, and trying to full embrace the idea of living cheerfully. The sun's shining, and there's been scones and hot chocolate and tea, a ducks and trees and water. What more could you ask for?

And, while I'm at it, can I say how much I appreciate all your lovely comments that you leave here? It really is so heartwarmingly gorgeous when people say cheery things! I have no idea how to contact people who leave comments directly, so will often reply in the comments themselves - if anyone could enlighten me that would be great! (I'm sure it's really easy...)

Today's excitement involves a pickaxe, a pneumatic drill, my fabulous steel toe capped wellies (see, I KNEW I'd need them one day!), and a concrete path.

Also tea, coconut cake, and sewing.

I fully intend to eat my breakfast in the garden, in the sunshine, for the whole of the summer, and that involves work, now, and plenty of it. Photos to follow, although I can assure you they won't be beautiful ones just yet!